Document generation apparatus, method, and storage medium

• US 9,223,763 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2013
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Saino, Yoko
• Primary Examiner(s): Ries, Laurie
• Application Number:
  US13/747,867
• Publication Number:
  US 20130132829A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,070 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00334 with an apparatus processing barcodes or the like arrangements for sensing record carriers G06K7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00342 with a radio frequency tag transmitter or receiver storage of additional information in an RFID tag attached to an image bearing paper sheet H04N1/32138
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2166 for mass storage, e.g. in document filing systems information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32133 on the same paper sheet, e.g. a facsimile page header
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32138 in an electronic device attached to the sheet, e.g. in an RFID tag
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3207 of an address
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3209 of a telephone number
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3276 of a customised additional information profile, e.g. a profile specific to a user ID

Abstract

A document generation apparatus comprises: a first acquisition unit adapted to acquire, based on identification information appended to a first document, layout data and data acquisition information required to acquire data to be laid out in accordance with the layout data; a second acquisition unit adapted to acquire data based on the data acquisition information acquired by the first acquisition unit; and a generation unit adapted to generate a second document on which the data acquired by the second acquisition unit are laid out in accordance with the layout data acquired by the first acquisition unit.

Claims

1. A document generation apparatus comprising:

a document information memory configured to store respective layout data and respective sources of latest contents for a plurality of documents in correspondence with respective identification information;

a program memory configured to store a program; and

a processor configured to execute the program stored in the program memory, the processor configured to provide;

a reading unit configured to scan at least part of a first document in which an original content of the first document is laid out in a layout according to first layout data and to read out first identification information from the scanned first document;

a first acquisition unit configured to acquire, based on the first identification information read out from the first document, the first layout data and a first source of a latest content of the first document from the document information memory;

a second acquisition unit configured to acquire the latest content of the first document from the first source of the latest content of the first document acquired by said first acquisition unit;

a generation unit configured to generate a second document by laying out the latest content of the first document acquired by said second acquisition unit in accordance with the first layout data acquired by said first acquisition unit; and

a printing unit configured to print out the second document generated by the generation unit as a latest version of the first document in which the latest content of the first document is laid out in the same layout as the original content of the first document.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit prints out the second document with appending the first identification information.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document information memory comprises a template memory and a table, the template memory stores respective layout data and respective sources of latest contents for the plurality of documents, and the table stores addresses of information for the plurality of documents in the template memory in correspondence with respective identification information.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reading unit reads out the first identification information by decoding an identification code in the scanned first document to the first identification information.

5. A document generation method comprising:

scanning at least part of a first document in which an original content of the first document is laid out in a layout according to first layout data;

reading out first identification information from the scanned first document;

acquiring, based on the first identification information read out from the first document, the first layout data and a first source of a latest content of the first document from a document information memory which stores respective layout data and respective sources of latest contents for a plurality of documents in correspondence with respective identification information;

acquiring the latest content of the first document from the acquired first source of the latest content of the first document;

generating a second document by laying out the latest content of the first document acquired from the first source in accordance with the first layout data acquired from the document information memory; and

printing out the generated second document as a latest version of the first document in which the latest content of the first document is laid out in the same layout as the original content of the first document.

6. A non-transitory storage medium storing a computer program for generating a document, the computer program comprising:

scanning at least part of a first document in which an original content of the first document is laid out in a layout according to first layout data;

reading out first identification information from the scanned first document;

acquiring, based on the first identification information read out from the first document, the first layout data and a first source of a latest content of the first document from a document information memory which stores respective layout data and respective sources of latest contents for a plurality of documents in correspondence with respective identification information;

acquiring the latest content of the first document from the acquired first source of the latest content of the first document;

generating a second document by laying out the latest content of the first document acquired from the first source in accordance with the first layout data acquired from the document information memory; and

printing out the generated second document as a latest version of the first document in which the latest content of the first document is laid out in the same layout as the original content of the first document.